Fuel Cells To Appear In Laptops In 2004

prostoalex writes "The overhyped fuel cells will finally be delivered to the portable computing market. Toshiba and NEC will incorporate fuel cells into the laptops by 2004. Sony, Hitachi and Casio are expected to follow the suit. The tests show a fuel cell lasting 10 hours. With the form-factor of a Bic lighter, it allows the laptop user to carry a few extra cells in the laptop bag all the time. Battery prices are expected to run at about $200."

Comments

The most important thing article doesnt mention...

[ultrapenguin]

Is how much do the refills cost? Surely, 100ml or whatever of methanol is going to last you for 10 hours, but what do you do then?
You can't regenerate it, so you go shopping for a refill?

Why only one?

[Squareball]

If one fuel cell lasts 10 hours and is the size of a bic lighter.. why not use 2 or 3 of them, or just make the one bigger to give more life between charges?

Why do I get the feeling...

[woobieman29]

That the manufacturers will pull an 'Ink Jet Cartridge' here and make it so that these things are not (easily) refillable? Plan on having to buy these only from the manufacturer, at a ridiculously inflated price. The whole Ink Jet cartridge BS is the main reason I stepped up and bought a laser printer for home use.

Not Untill The Recharges Are "Free"

[MBCook]

I'd like more battery life just as much as the next guy, but I don't intend to replace my laptop's batteries untill recharges are "free".

Right now, how does it work? I use my battery, and it gets low. Then I plug my laptop in and after a short time, the battery is "magically" refilled, and it didn't cost my any money (my electric bill, but that's a few cents max). I can recharge my laptop ANYWHERE I can find an outlet, which is just about anywhere.

Now for the fuel cell battery. I use my battery and it's gone. Now I have to recharge it with a new little lighter sized cartridge thing. I don't want to pay $5 for 'em. I don't want to pay $1 for 'em. If I got a few refillable fuel "cartridges" when I bought my laptop and some kind of home refuling station that would use my natural gas line or something, I would consider it, maybe. I'll take my 3 or 4 hour battery life over your 10 since mine is free. And when do I need 10 hours of battery life anyway? Most people probably don't, as they could probably find places to plug in by then.

So how do you get me to do something like this? Make a fuel cell battery that works with something like pure hydrogen and oxygen. It mixes them to make electricity and stores the water in a little compartment. Then when I plug my laptop into the wall, it uses the electricity to reseperate the water into hydrogen and oxygen and stores them back in their own little compartments. Basically a sealed system that works just like a standard battery. I really don't care what's in it, or how it works, but unless it works a LOT like a battery, I'm not terribly interested. I'm not paying for what I get for "free".

Re:Not Untill The Recharges Are "Free"

[Kaz Riprock]

Is this a troll? When do you need 10 hours of life? How about crammed into the economy class of your favorite airline with Lizzie McGuire as the only movie on the flight...Or on any one of a number of long distance trips (train, bus, etc).

What about outside on a park bench enjoying some summer air while you do your work by wireless LAN?

Mixing pure hydrogen and oxygen? Storing pure oxygen in something small and lightweight enough to carry around without a wheelchair? If you can tether yourself for enough time to gain a full charge often enough to run off of a 2 hour battery (and I'm not talking about playing a few mp3s with the lid down but using the DVD-ROM full screen while powering your wireless card, USB optical mouse, and 15" LCD screen...) which would give you about 45 minutes to move about before your hibernate function kicks in...

You have to be joking. A 10 hour fuel cell that I can refill with my mixture of methanol/water from home (actually, I'd just steal from the lab) is a great idea...at only a fraction of the cost more than a replacement battery every few years!

Re:What will it be powering?

[ProfessionalCookie]

'course you can get a lil one to run 10+ hours if you're using a 200Mhz Transmeta with no optical drive and a itty bitty 10" screen. I think that's what they mean by "it will last 10 hours." In reality I don't expect this bic lighter to last any longer than my current battery.

If I had a 2Ghz P4 I wouldn't expect it to last more than 2 hours.

My bet is that those 10 hour estimates rely on future expected power saving advancements (read: Vapor!).

"overhyped laptop fuel cells"

[bbc22405]

"Overhyped laptop fuel cells"? That is right on the money. The first market for small fuel cells is not in laptop computers. There are too many places where you can plug in a laptop to (a) avoid using the batteries and (b) recharge your batteries. People will be willing to stop by Computers-R-Us to pick up another 10-pack of methanol capsules, when instead they can just plug in just about anywhere? No way.

I predict that the first and best market for small fuel cells, and where the technology will incubate until it is ready to spread wider, is in hand tools for construction workers (e.g. house framers). They already use tools that chew through multiple battery packs in a workday. They also already have tools (nailers) that are both battery powered and have small fuel tanks that are used to generate small explosions. They are ready and willing to deal with fuel cells that might be noisy, hot, smelly, and perhaps even slightly dangerous. I'm sure they would welcome a tool that chewed through cheapy single-use methanol tanks, rather than having to carefully rotate through an assortment of battery packs every day, sometimes at a site without electrical service.